Registry
A registry was a place to record or register information. One such registry is the Vulcan Genome Registry. ( ) Vessels were often registered by agency. They may record a vessel's name, registry number, history, and basic ship information. ( ) Ship registries were used as early as the 19th century. In 1893, after overhearing a time-lost Data mentioning a starship, Samuel Clemens asked, "What registry is that?!" ( ) In the 23rd and 24th century, Starfleet starships were able to check both historical registries from Earth and Vulcan as well as the Starfleet Registry. ( ; ) The [[SS Botany Bay|SS Botany Bay]] was not listed in any registry, although this might have been a result of the lack of unfragmented records in that era. ( ) Registry numbers and prefixes In some governments and agencies, a ship entered into a registry received a prefix that was placed before the vessel's name. This prefix was used to easily identify the vessel as belonging to that agency. A registry prefix should not be confused with a ship's prefix code. Vessel prefixes include: † With Earth's national prefixes (British HMS and Russian VK) still in use up to the founding of the Federation, it is probable that USS still meant United States Ship in the same time-frame, but we only have one example to look at. Items listed in a registry generally had a number or code to help identify the specific entry. :Registry numbers can be changed, as seems to be the case of the USS Yamato. The reason for this practice is unknown. In some registries, the registry number was preceded by an abbreviation as well: Aside from the registry prefixes, Starfleet at one time also used letters after the main registry prefix to further define specific types of craft. This was seen in the freighter , with its registry of NCC-F1513 and another ship with the registry NCC-G1465. ( ) Starfleet would also use sequential lettering after a registry number was repeated to honor a former vessel. ( ) Examples of this include: Background According to the novels of Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, Klingon starships use a "KL" registry number prefix. Diane Duane's ''Rihannsu'' novels give the prefix ChR for Romulan starships. In , the prefix "USS" is seen for the only time on a computer graphic referring to both ''Enterprise'' and Columbia. This was admitted to be a production mistake and was seen in no other Enterprise production. The most famous registry number, of course, is NCC-1701, that of the original . It was chosen by Matt Jefferies, who was a pilot before joining the Star Trek staff, and based the registry number on 20th century codes. In the early 20th century, the letter "N" indicated a United States origin, and the letter "C" indicated a civilian aircraft. Jefferies arbitrarily added a second "C" for aesthetics. Star Trek Blueprints designates that the prefix "NCC" stands for "Naval Construction Contract," while other sources claim "Navigational Contact Code", but there is no canon basis for this conjecture. The prefix NX was formerly used for experimental aircraft registered in the United States, and was also used in Star Trek series and films to denote an experimental starship, such as the ''Enterprise'' NX-01 or the . According to Rick Sternbach, the NAR prefix indicates "Merchant-type vessels," further stating that the meaning behind its use "goes back to Mike and me and others in the National Association of Rocketry." http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.arts.startrek.tech/browse_thread/thread/86196b14cbd56cd6/ Based on usage – [[VK Yuri Gagarin|VK Yuri Gagarin]] and [[VK Velikan|VK Velikan]] – it is probable that the VK prefix means a Russian ship in Star Trek. In the real world, the Russians do not use prefixes for their ship names. * In the book , the primary Alfa-class attack sub is named V.K. Konovalov, in honor of . This suggests that the use of VK as a Russian prefix is either an error on the part of the Star Trek writers or an homage to Tom Clancy. * VK might also be used by the Star Trek writers to mean an acronym for Военный Корабль (Military Ship, Voenny Korabl) which is not used in the real world either, but at least makes some sense. External link * [http://starchive.cs.umanitoba.ca/?ships/prefixes/ Star Trek Ships: Expanded - Prefixes] at The STArchive de:Registriernummer fr:Registre